Get ready for a Kelly Cutrone and Kanye West beef.
The America’s Next Top Model judge contested the notion that Kanye and Kim Kardashian have any influence at all in the world of high fashion.
“I think they have no influence in the fashion world whatsoever,” she told the NY Daily News. “I mean, most people who watch the Kardashians’ (reality show) can’t afford Givenchy. I don’t mean to be mean… Are (counterfeiters) on Canal St. benefiting from it? Probably, but that’s not the fashion world.”
She went on to say: “I don’t think there’s one person who really works in the fashion industry who gives a flying fuck about Kanye West.”
To be fair to Cutrone, she didn’t deny the couple’s obvious cultural impact, but she doesn’t think that the couple deserves any credit for shaping the high-end taste makers of the world.
“Have Kim and Kanye had an impact on pop culture? Absolutely. Do I think that (Vogue editor-at-large) Hamish Bowles wakes up in the morning, calls (former Vogue editor-at-large) Andre Leon Talley and says, ‘Did you see those pants that Kanye was rocking on ‘SNL’?’ No.”
Kanye has tried his hands at the fashion world. Ignoring his “Yeezy” sneakers with Nike, Kanye has also collaborated with A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou and adidas signed him to do some design work for their brand (whether any of these are “high end” enough for Cutrone is another question).
As for Kim, she’s basic according to Cutrone:
“The truth of the matter is that Kim Kardashian is not doing anything fresh in fashion, either. She’s not getting into the nitty-gritty, super avant-garde players. She’s not even wearing ( Vivienne ) Westwood yet.”
No Vivienne Westwood? For shame, Kim.
I am eagerly awaiting a Kanye response to all of this but we may have already seen the long and short of it. Kanye touched on the impenetrability of the fashion world in his famous interview with the BBC’s Zane Lowe:
I brought 10 years of product that has added to humanity. And now, where’s the culture at?! So then I scream and I’m sitting in the middle of it. Whether I’m at a dinner with Anna Wintour, or I’m at a listening session with Pusha, or me and Virgil are in Rome giving designs to Fendi over and over and getting our designs knocked down. We brought the leather jogging pants six years ago to Fendi, and they said, ‘No.’ How many motherfuckers you done seen with a jogging pant?
…
You don’t realize, I am so frustrated. I am so frustrated. I am so, I’ve got so much I want to give. I’ve got ideas on color palettes. I’ve got ideas on silhouettes. And I’ve got a million people telling me why I can’t do it. You know, that I’m not a real designer, that I’m not this. I’m not a real rapper, either! I’m not a real musician, either! Like, I don’t know how to play the piano. I’m an artist. I went to art college.
